How Patients Want to Book: Key Scheduling Statistics

Patients want to book medical appointments online, on their own schedule: 89% say the ability to schedule anytime via online or mobile tools is important (Experian Health, 2024), and 43% of appointments booked on Zocdoc in 2025 were booked after office hours (Zocdoc, 2025). Practices have not caught up: only 54% of providers offer self-scheduling (Experian Health, 2025), and 71% of practices report that fewer than a quarter of their patients self-schedule (MGMA, 2025). This page collects the patient scheduling statistics worth citing, each with its source, year, and sample size.

The numbers at a glance

Most scheduling statistics online are recycled between listicles until the source disappears. Every figure below links to its original publisher; dates and sample sizes sit in the methodology section.

• Demand: 89% of patients say anytime online or mobile scheduling is important (Experian Health, 2024); 80% want to schedule from home or a mobile device (Experian Health, 2025).
• Behavior: 75% of millennials booked their most recent appointment online (Kyruus Health, 2023); 43% of Zocdoc bookings in 2025 happened after office hours (Zocdoc, 2025).
• Supply: 54% of providers offer self-scheduling; another 10% plan to add it within six months (Experian Health, 2025).
• Adoption: 71% of practices see fewer than 25% of patients self-scheduling; only 8% see a majority (MGMA, 2025).
• Friction: 61% of patients skipped care in the past year because scheduling was a hassle (MedCity News, 2022).
• Portals: 65% of US individuals accessed their patient portal in 2024, up from 25% in 2014 (ASTP/ONC, 2024).

What patients say they want

The demand-side surveys are consistent. In Experian Health's State of Patient Access 2024 survey, 89% of patients said the ability to schedule appointments anytime via online or mobile tools is important (Experian Health, 2024). The 2025 edition found 80% want to schedule anytime from their home or mobile device (Experian Health, 2025).

Scheduling also shapes where patients go. In Kyruus Health's 2023 Care Access Benchmark survey of 1,000 consumers, 61% said the ability to schedule online is extremely or very important when selecting a new provider (Kyruus Health, 2023).

Watch the wording, though: "important" (89%) and "extremely or very important when choosing a new provider" (61%) are different bars. We reconcile the spread below.

What patients actually do

Stated preference can be cheap talk, so the behavioral data matters more. It points the same way: in the same Kyruus survey, 75% of millennials reported scheduling their most recent healthcare appointment online (Kyruus Health, 2023).

Zocdoc's What Patients Want 2025 report, drawn from platform bookings between January and September 2025, found 43% of appointments were booked after office hours: roughly 28% in the evening (5pm to 11pm) and about 14% overnight (Zocdoc, 2025). Millennials and Gen Z made up 76% of bookers (46% and 30% respectively), and Gen Z was 30% more likely than the average booker to schedule between 11pm and 3am. An earlier Zocdoc analysis (August 2021 to August 2022) put the off-hours share at 37% (Zocdoc, 2022), so the trend is rising. We cover what off-hours demand means for practices in our deep dive on after-hours patient booking.

Our own numbers match: across Clinekt deployments, 82% of patients try to book care outside office hours.

Patient portal usage shows the same migration at population scale: 65% of US individuals accessed their online medical record or patient portal at least once in 2024, up from 57% in 2022 and 25% in 2014 (ASTP/ONC Data Brief 77, 2024).

The adoption gap on the provider side

Now the supply side. Only 54% of providers offer self-scheduling, with another 10% planning to add it within six months (Experian Health, 2025).

Usage inside practices is thinner still. In an MGMA Stat poll from July 2025 (244 applicable responses), 71% of practices reported that fewer than 25% of their patients use digital tools to self-schedule, and only 8% see a majority doing so (MGMA, 2025).

Providers know it: in the same survey, 71% called improving the scheduling process an urgent priority, and 63% cited staffing shortages as a persistent barrier to access (Experian Health, 2025). Put the sides together: 80-89% of patients want digital scheduling, roughly half of providers offer it, and fewer than one practice in ten sees majority uptake.

The friction data

The gap shows up as skipped care. In a March 2022 survey of 1,005 patients, 61% skipped going to the doctor in the past year because scheduling an appointment was too much of a hassle, and 70% tried to schedule online but were redirected to a phone number to finish (MedCity News, 2022). That second number deserves more attention than it gets: most "online scheduling" in healthcare is a request form that ends in a phone call.

The phone itself is the bottleneck. Industry estimates suggest booking by phone takes about 8 minutes, with at least 30% of that time spent on hold, versus roughly 1 minute online; the same analysis projected $3.2 billion in annual savings for the US health system from self-scheduling (Accenture, 2014, via MedCity News). Treat those figures as directional: the analysis is over a decade old and the original report is no longer online.

Why the preference statistics contradict each other

Anyone comparing sources will notice the spread: 89% here, 61% there, practice-reported usage under 25%. Three things explain it.

• Stated versus revealed preference: surveys measure what all patients say they want; booking-platform data measures what patients do where a real digital option already exists. Both numbers can be true at once when most practices in a market never offer the option.
• Cohort effects: aggregate numbers hide age structure. 75% of millennials booked their last appointment online, Gen Z disproportionately books overnight, and older cohorts still default to the phone. A survey weighted to the whole population will always read lower than data from a millennial-heavy booking platform.
• Question framing and denominators: "is anytime scheduling important" (89%) sets a lower bar than "extremely or very important when selecting a new provider" (61%). And MGMA's 71% describes practices, not patients: it largely measures what practices have deployed, not what their patients would choose if offered.

Read together, the sources agree: demand for digital scheduling is high in every cohort measured, behavior follows wherever the option exists, and low usage figures are a supply constraint, not a demand signal.

Methodology and how to cite this page

Last updated July 16, 2026. Every statistic here links to its original publisher (the survey owner, journal, or federal data brief) or, where we do not link the publisher directly, to independent trade-press coverage of the original survey. Each keeps the publisher's own wording and carries its year and sample size where published. Numbers that exist only on aggregator listicles were excluded. One set of figures is marked as an industry estimate because the primary report is offline.

• 89% anytime scheduling: Experian Health, State of Patient Access 2024; 1,000+ patients and 200 revenue cycle decision-makers, February 2024.
• 80% home or mobile, 54% offering, 71% urgent priority, 63% staffing barrier: Experian Health, State of Patient Access 2025; 1,000+ consumers and 200+ provider decision-makers, February 2025.
• 61% new-provider importance, 75% millennial online booking: Kyruus Health, 2023 Care Access Benchmark Report; 1,000 consumers, July 2023.
• 43% after-hours share, 76% millennial and Gen Z booker share: Zocdoc, What Patients Want 2025; platform booking data, January to September 2025.
• 71% and 8% practice self-scheduling shares: MGMA Stat poll, July 29, 2025; 244 applicable responses.
• 61% skipped care, 70% redirected to a phone number: industry survey via MedCity News, 2022; 1,005 patients, March 2022.
• 65% portal access, up from 25% in 2014: ASTP/ONC Health IT Data Brief No. 77; 2024 HINTS survey data.
• 8 minutes by phone versus 1 minute online, $3.2 billion projection: Accenture analysis, 2014, via MedCity News; industry estimate, primary report offline.

To cite this page: Clinekt Health, "Patient scheduling statistics," clinekthealth.com, last updated July 16, 2026. We refresh the figures annually.

What this means for specialty practices

For specialty practices the stakes run higher: each booked consult carries more revenue, and a patient who gives up on scheduling often lands with the competitor whose booking flow worked at 10pm. Self-scheduling is one piece of patient activation: turning demand into booked appointments across your website, dormant EHR records, and outbound channels.

Two Clinekt platform numbers frame the website side: 98% of visitors leave without making contact, and typical contact forms convert under 1% of visitors, versus 8-12% engagement with a screening-first experience. If patient demand runs around the clock and the desk runs 9 to 5, closing that gap takes automation; we walk through the mechanics in how AI patient scheduling works. Missed appointments are the other half of the cost picture, and we break down those benchmarks in our guide to the average no-show rate and what it costs.

Common questions

What percentage of patients prefer to book medical appointments online?

Between 61% and 89%, depending on how the question is asked. 89% of patients say anytime online or mobile scheduling is important (Experian Health, 2024), 80% want to schedule from home or a mobile device (Experian Health, 2025), and 61% say online scheduling is extremely or very important when choosing a new provider (Kyruus Health, 2023).

How many patients actually use self-scheduling?

Fewer than the preference surveys imply, because most practices do not offer it. 71% of practices report that under 25% of their patients self-schedule, and only 8% see a majority (MGMA Stat, July 2025), while just 54% of providers offer self-scheduling at all (Experian Health, 2025).

Does online scheduling influence how patients choose a provider?

Yes. 61% of consumers say the ability to schedule appointments online is extremely or very important when selecting a new healthcare provider (Kyruus Health, 2023), and 75% of millennials booked their most recent appointment online.

What percentage of patients use patient portals?

65% of US individuals accessed their online medical record or patient portal at least once in 2024, up from 25% in 2014, according to federal ASTP/ONC data.

Why do some statistics suggest patients still prefer to call?

Mostly survey framing and age cohorts. General-population surveys include older patients who default to the phone, and phone-heavy behavior concentrates where no online option exists. Where a real online option is offered, behavioral data shows strong digital uptake, led by millennials and Gen Z.

If the after-hours demand in these numbers is showing up at your practice, put a dollar figure on it with our patient leakage calculator, or book a demo to see how Clinekt's AI agents answer, screen, and book patients around the clock.